Watermark Removal

[Beauty Through a Lens]

Does anyone have any tips on removing a watermark from an image?

I always back up my photographs incase I need them later (and I did today) but it turns out I backed up the watermarked photograph and not the original...

[Manfred M]

Just like any other part of an image that you need to remove; post-processing tools (depending on the software you are using) are used to do this. Watermark removal is nothing more than creating new content that looks like the original image over the watermark. You are not so much removing the watermark than covering it up. I use the clone tool, content aware tools and a lot of other techniques that are available in the newer versions of Photoshop.

Complexity depends on the area of the image that is watermarked. As I recall, your watermarks were generally in the middle of the image, so are more complex than to do than one applied in an area with simple content.

[Beauty Through a Lens]

Just like any other part of an image that you need to remove; post-processing tools (depending on the software you are using) are used to do this. Watermark removal is nothing more than creating new content that looks like the original image over the watermark. You are not so much removing the watermark than covering it up. I use the clone tool, content aware tools and a lot of other techniques that are available in the newer versions of Photoshop.

Complexity depends on the area of the image that is watermarked. As I recall, your watermarks were generally in the middle of the image, so are more complex than to do than one applied in an area with simple content.

Thanks and good memory

[pnodrog]

Adrian you refer to backup which implies you still have the originals. Judging by your question I assume it was not a true backup or you have subsequently lost your originals?

[loosecanon]

If it is your image you must have a copy of the watermark, from which you can make a selection - then photoshop content aware fill will do a good job.

[jcuknz]

Perhaps this will teach you the futility of adding watermarks to your image ... they are usually quite easy to cover up as Manfred outlined ....If you want to ID your work then do it the way professionals used to do it with their name nicely on the mounting board or with a computer enlarge the canvas area and put your name there ... not wrecking the photo by plastering it on the image .... if somebody wants to steal it they probably will easily just spend a couple of minutes editing it away .. so it is an exercise in futility and I have never done it

I could also explain my system which is to copy every camera file to what I call an 'archive' folder on my second HD, actually the new hard drive I put in my old computer just before it crashed and now sits in its box attached by USB to the computer.
Having successfully copied the camera file to archive I then move the camera file to a folder by subject matter in the working HD to be played with ... if it is edited I add Z to the end of the filename/number to indicate this and as mentioned elsewhere if re-sized for web use it gets a W added.

Because I have this 'original' safe on HD2 I quite often return to them, make a copy of it for a fresh work-up and this was the basis whereby one well known Canadian photographer never saved his work-ups on the principle that in the future he would know more and do a better job with subsequent work-ups ... I am not sure that is the case with me

Of course in all this I have never used any down loading "system" and merely the tools which Windows provided to me back with W3.1.1 .....the option to copy or move appears in the EDIT menu once a file is selected for treatment but usually grey-ed out until you select a file, or simply not there in some windows. I hate to think what my problems will be when I am forced to move from XP to one of the newer 'improved' stuff-ups from MS.

[Aeros]

I hate to think what my problems will be when I am forced to move from XP to one of the newer 'improved' stuff-ups from MS.

Isn't that the OS they used in the olden days?